


Chemistry Was Never My Best Subject

by Erandri



Series: 365 Days of McDanno [10]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Episode 6.09, Episode Related, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Undercover Danny, Undercover Missions, professor steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 09:49:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13211226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erandri/pseuds/Erandri
Summary: Undercover work is never easy. Especially when Danny meets a very distracting ex-Navy SEAL turned chemistry professor.





	Chemistry Was Never My Best Subject

**Author's Note:**

> I will never have enough Professor Danny fics. Episode 6.09 ruined me.

He’s always hated long-term undercover work. There are too many things to remember, too many chances for something to go wrong, and just one slip up could earn you a bullet to the head. So when Chin suggests that someone goes undercover at O’ahu State to try and figure out their murder from the inside, Danny tries to take a subtle step out of his line of sight. The problem is that Chin has his eye on him before he can so much as even twitch.

“Danny, you up for the job?” Chin asks with a smile that promises bad things if he says no.

“Why me? Why can’t Lou be the one undercover? Or Kono?”

“You’re the only one that can do it,” Chin explains coolly, “I have to be here to coordinate, Lou majored in Criminal Justice which the school currently has more than enough professors for, and Kono wouldn’t be able to pass as a professor for any subject.”

“Community college, brah,” Kono says, announcing it like it’s a badge of honor.

“Luckily for us,” Chin continues, “ _you_  minored in economics, which just happens to be one of the departments with an opening."

“Because the previous professor was murdered,” Danny feels duty bound to remind them all, but Chin just smiles, hands over a folder and says, “You start tomorrow, Professor.”

\---

The biggest pro to being Professor Jeffries is that the probability of him getting shot at has now reduced down to practically zero. It’s a nice change of pace, to know that on any given day the most deadly thing that he’s going to come across is what’s for lunch and he’s almost tempted to revisit his previous stance on undercover work when he finds himself actually enjoying teaching his first real class.

Danny’s in the dining hall when he first sees him. He’s walking with a slight limp, a hand on his leg to help him move, and his outfit looks like a G.I. Joe reject but other than his appalling sense of fashion the guy is gorgeous.

“I see you’ve noticed Dr. McGarrett,” Amelia, one of the calculus professors, murmurs when she notices where his attention had been drawn.

“Doctor?” He asks because there’s no way that the model currently picking over the fruit selection has a Ph.D.

“Mmhmm. Steve McGarrett, he teaches chemistry. He kinda keeps to himself but I heard that he was in the military before he got his doctorate. Howard over in physics said that he was hit by an IED on tour in Afghanistan and was medically discharged,” she says and once again he’s reminded why he befriended her for this case, she gossips worse than his Nonna’s pitch club.

He turns his gaze back to McGarrett, more for his own pleasure than any interest in him as a potential suspect but he must look too long because the next thing he knows Amelia is calling McGarrett over and introducing them. He shakes McGarrett's hand and when he smiles, Danny knows that he’s in trouble.

\---

Despite never having seen Steve in the three weeks he’s been doing this assignment, after their first meeting in the dining hall Danny seems to be running into him all over the place. “You know, if we keep running into each other I’m gonna have to stop thinking of it as a coincidence,” Danny says, coming up behind Steve while he’s in line at the campus cafe.

“Then how about calling it a happy accident?” Steve offers with a grin.

“I’m not so sure it’s an accident either,” Danny counters. He can see a hint of pink coloring the tips of Steve's ears and he doesn't have to be a detective to know that he's right.

“How about I buy you a coffee?” Steve asks nodding towards where the barista is waiting for his order and Danny happily accepts.

\---

Steve is turning out to be a problem. Instead of investigating in his time outside of classes, Danny always seems to find himself talking to Steve. Even on his days off, they find time to get together and it’s getting harder and harder for him to keep lying to Steve about who he is.

It comes to a head when he’s over at Steves house on a Friday night, ungraded exams strewn out on the coffee table in front of them. They had abandoned their work halfway through in favor of beer and an action flick when halfway through the movie Steve leans over and kisses him. He sighs and leans into the kiss, moving so that he can wrap a hand around the back of Steve’s neck and pull him closer. Then, further proving that the universe doesn’t want him to be happy, he remembers that Steve still thinks that he's actually Professor Daniel Jeffries.

“I can’t do this,” he says, pushing away. Steve looks dazed and adorably rumpled from where he’s been running his hand through Steve’s hair, but the look quickly turns to confusion as his words sink in. “I can’t do this,” he says again, to himself, and leaves before Steve has the chance to respond.

\---

Steve won’t talk to him anymore and even though it feels like a knife twisting in his stomach every time Steve turns away from him, he knows that it’s for the best. Don’t get attached. It’s one of the cardinal rules while working undercover and Danny’s never had a problem with it before. Unfortunately for him, Steve always has a tendency to ignore the rules.

Thankfully, since he has so much more free time now, he only has to suffer for a few days before they find enough evidence to close the case.

\---

It takes two weeks of moping around the office before Chin and Kono get fed up enough to harass the truth out of him. Once they know, the only thing that he can do to keep them from driving him to Steve's house themselves is to promise to go over there himself. Even with his assurance that he'll drive straight there, they still watch him get into his Camaro and Chin threatens to track his car all the way.

Steve answers on the third knock, leaning against the doorframe looking unimpressed. “What are you doing here Danny?” he asks.

“I need to tell you something,” he says and holds up a hand to cut Steve off when he opens his mouth, “My name is not Daniel Jeffries, it’s Danny Williams. I’m not a professor, I’m a detective with the Honolulu Task Force. After Professor Thomas was murdered I was assigned to work undercover to see if someone with the university was involved.” he admits and waits for Steve to say something.

“Is that it?” Steve finally asks, his voice cold and detached.

“You weren’t part of it Steve,” he says, knowing what Steve must be thinking, “Me being your friend, kissing you. You were never a suspect and our meeting was never part of the job. I never wanted to hurt you I just wanted... you.”

He looks at Steve, searching for some kind of acceptance, but Steve refuses to look at him. When Steve shows no signs of speaking to him, Danny turns around and starts to walk away. He’s halfway to his car when Steve finally calls out to him, “Detective Williams, can I buy you a cup of coffee?”

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [Tumblr](http://erandri.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
